Take the Powerball Winnings and Invest

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Take the Powerball Winnings and Invest

Written by Miranda Marquit

If you were a lotto winner, where would you put your Powerball winnings?
Over the weekend, the big news is that there is a very wealthy person (or persons) running around in Indiana after winning the Powerball. So, what to do about it? Well, a favorite pastime of some lottery winners is investing. And whether you choose to invest a lump sum, or take the annual payout (with its friendlier taxing scheme), you can boost your investments.

Right now, energy stocks have taken a bit of a beating. Which is why now might not be a bad time to go for it. Solar stocks have taken a hit, including perennial favorite First Solar (FSLR), which means you could get a good deal. And with Powerball winnings, you could invest a large chunk of change wherever you decided to do so. Another good bet would be to consider funds or ETFs. The Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) still shows a great deal of promise, and it could be a good place for all that money.

But you probably want to diversify as well. Most alternative energy investments are small caps and mid caps. If you are looking for something with a little less risk, large cap investments could help out. Choosing well-respected, solid companies may be the way to go. One way you could find such companies that are reliably "green," is to look and see what the Sierra Club's mutual fund is investing in. Surprisingly solid companies like Nike (NKE) make the list, and Google (GOOG) got an honorable mention. And with those Powerball winnings, you could actually afford some of the large-caps in larger amounts (Google is especially expensive).

For the rest of us non-Powerball winners, though, there's always dollar cost averaging to help us build our investment portfolios.

Disclosure: I do not own any of the above mentioned, although I am interested in Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF.

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